ASIC has launched separate court actions against two Westpac Subsidiaries and the financial planning arm of industry fund First State Super in a response to case studies of the Hayne Royal Commission.

On Thursday, ASIC announced it had commenced civil penalty proceedings against StatePlus, which is First State’s financial advice subsidiary, for allegedly charging almost thirty seven thousand superannuation members fees for financial advice services they never received.
BT Funds Management and Asgard, both members of the Westpac Family have also been hit with civil penalty proceedings for charging fees for financial advice to members who never received it.

Of course, the alleged wrongdoings haven’t been proven yet, but when that happens (which I expect), may I suggest as a suitable punishment that all members that were charged fees are provided with free Proper Financial Advice from external value adding Financial Advisers to assist those members in setting up a Self Managed Super Fund and take their money away and have it properly managed for them, provided that that’s a suitable solution for their individual circumstances, of course.